Even though Montenegro, located in Southeastern Europe on the Adriatic Coast and with a population of just over 600 thousand people, is a small country, its vast energy potential has been recognized by numerous international investors and by the Montenegrin Government.

While current affairs seem to be stable in Montenegro, according to Tripkovic & Raicevic Founding Partner Pavle Tripkovic, the recent bankruptcies of Invest Bank of Montenegro and Atlas Bank have alarmed the local banking market.

Jones Day has advised Societe Generale in connection with the sale of its majority stake in the share capital of Societe Generale Montenegro, a company listed on the Montenegrin Stock Exchange, to OTP Bank Nyrt. Schoenherr advised Societe Generale on matters of Montenegrin law, while CMS advised OTP.

Law firm members of the SEE Legal Group, acting on behalf of Netlog Logistics, have completed a due diligence analysis of the Intereuropa group of companies, upon the announcement of a banking consortium that it is selling 72% share capital in Intereuropa d.d.

Kinstellar, Shearman & Sterling, and Radonjic Associates have advised Masdar on its acquisition of a 49% share in Krnovo Green Energy from a subsidiary of Akuo Energy. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Karanovic & Partners advised Akuo Energy, while Allen & Overy acted as general counsel for the lenders.

BDK Advokati has advised Montenegro's Industriaimport-Industriaimpex AD on its acquisition of 49% of the registered capital of Serbian pharmaceutical wholesaler Farmalogist d.o.o. from private equity firm Adriatic Fund B.V., and in connection with the Shareholders’ Agreement entered into with the owners of the remaining 51% of the shares. HRLE advised Adriatic, while Bojanovic & Partners advised the owners of 51% of the shares in Farmalogist.

Go2Law has advised Kopernikus Corporation, owned by Srdjan Milovanovic, on its acquisition of TV Prva and TV O2  in Serbia and Montenegro from the Antenna Group. Zivkovic Samardzic, working with EY and Clifford Chance, advised Antenna Group on the sale.

Arcliffe has assisted Yazaki on corporate and labor-related matters related to the company's activity in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Croatia. ODI Law supported Arcliffe in the Adria region countries.

Article 2 of the Montenegrin Law on the Protection of Competition limits the law’s application to acts undertaken within the territory of Montenegro and acts undertaken outside of Montenegro which have as their object or effect the distortion of competition in Montenegro. In practice, however, the Law on the Protection of Competition (the “Law”) seems sometimes to be applied beyond its territorial scope.

Johannes Juranek has been appointed Managing Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz and will assume the role at the start of the firm's financial year on February 1, 2019.

Things are going well in Montenegro at the moment, according to Komnenic Law Office Managing Partner Milos Komnenic, a function not only of the country’s stable political situation, with the current government elected in November 2016, and President Milo Dukanovic elected in April of this year, but more significantly as the result of the country’s June 2017 entrance into NATO.

BDK Advokati and Kirkland & Ellis have advised BC Partners on its agreement to acquire a majority stake in United Group B.V. from KKR, which retains a substantial minority stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to relevant regulatory approvals.

Harrisons has appointed new Senior Associate Milan Keker Head of the firm's Podgorica office.

October 30, 2018, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Belgrade

We are excited to announce that registration for the 2018 Balkan General Counsel Summit is now open. The event will take place in Belgrade’s Hyatt Regency Hotel on October 30, 2018.

In 2017, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted a new Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Facilities (the “Law”), introducing major innovations in the field of spatial planning and construction. The Law entered into force on October 8, 2017.

Vladimir Radonjic, the Managing Partner of Radonjic Associates in Montenegro, reflects back on his Buzz interview in June 2017. "2018 has brought a lot more stability in terms of local politics, and the local economy is in better shape,” he says. "As you remember, in 2017 we joined NATO, and it seems the expectations people had that it would result in more stability have proven correct.”

The plans to regulate public-private partnerships have been in the program of the Montenegrin Government for at least ten years now. Despite its central importance to both the public and private sectors, a specific legislative and institutional framework in the area of PPPs is still not in place. Instead, PPPs are regulated by laws from several sectors and by the Law on Concessions. The main authoritative bodies in charge of implementing PPP projects are the Privatization and Capital Investment Council and the Concession Commission.

The winners of the 2017 CEE Deal of the Year Awards were announced at the first ever CEE Legal Matters Deal of the Year Awards Banquet last night in Prague. The biggest smiles in the joyous and music-filled celebration of CEE lawyering, perhaps, were on the faces of Partners from Avellum and Sayenko Kharenko, which, along with White & Case and Latham & Watkins, won the award both for Ukrainian Deal of the Year and CEE Deal of the Year for their work on the 2017 Ukraine Eurobond Issue (a story initially reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 2, 2017).